French Prime Minister François Bayrou has said he is "stabbed to the heart" after his eldest daughter, Hélène Perlant, revealed she was among the victims of abuse at a Roman Catholic school
now at the center of a growing scandal.
Perlant, 53, disclosed that a priest at Notre-Dame de Bétharram assaulted her during a summer camp when she was 14. Her revelation comes amid mounting scrutiny over decades of abuse at the school in the Pyrenees — a school located in Bayrou’s political stronghold, where he once served as MP and education minister.
Bayrou, 73, has firmly denied any knowledge of the abuses, which allegedly spanned from the 1950s to 2010. He is expected to appear before a parliamentary inquiry next month.
Notre-Dame de Bétharram, now renamed Le Beau Rameau, is close to the city of Pau, where Bayrou has been mayor since 2014. Three of his six children, including Hélène, attended the school, and his wife once taught religious studies there.
In a recent interview with Paris Match, Perlant recounted a harrowing ordeal: "The priest grabbed me by the hair, dragged me several meters across the floor, and beat me, focusing on my stomach." She said she was left so traumatized she wet herself and spent the night curled up in her sleeping bag.
She explained her long silence, describing Bétharram as being run "like a sect or a totalitarian regime," exerting psychological pressure on both students and staff to prevent them from speaking out.
Although isolated allegations of abuse had surfaced as early as the 1990s, a 1996 investigation by the French education ministry concluded there was no evidence that students were brutalized. Despite this, disturbing claims continued to emerge over the years. In 2023, a former student, Alain Esquerre, created a Facebook group for alleged victims, triggering around 200 complaints, with nearly half involving allegations of sexual violence, including rape by two priests.
By early 2025, the scandal had exploded nationally, placing enormous pressure on Bayrou's already shaky government. As prime minister since December, he leads a fragile minority administration that could collapse with a united no-confidence vote by opposition parties.
A former judge told Le Monde that Bayrou had expressed concerns in 1998 about his son, who attended Bétharram. Bayrou disputes this, insisting he was unaware of any sexual abuse at the time. His daughter Hélène supports his account, saying: "The more involved you are, the less you see and understand."
Speaking on Wednesday during a visit to a prison in southeastern France, Bayrou said his daughter never told him about her experience. "Not knowing, and the fact such abuse took place, is almost unbearable for me," he said. "But as a public official, my thoughts are with the victims above all."
Hélène Perlant has also shared her story with Alain Esquerre, who has written a book chronicling the survivors' fight for justice. Esquerre expressed regret that her high-profile account might overshadow the broader group of victims: "It steals a little of their spotlight," he told AFP. Photo by Rama, Wikimedia commons.